NOTE: This story/chart originally was posted in conjunction with the end of the Avalanche’s home schedule last week. After the weekend road games at Dallas and St. Louis, this has been upated.

The Avalanche’s awful 2016-17 season ended Sunday.

Wait.

It wasn’t just awful.

It was historically awful. It was toxic. It was a dumpster fire that only could be extinguished by the schedule — the end of the schedule.

The 22-56-4 record, for 48 points, not only was by far the franchise’s worst in its 21 seasons in Denver, it was the worst in the NHL since the 1999-2000 Atlanta Thrashers went 14-57-7-4 for 39 points. (The last two digits are for ties and overtime losses in the pre-shootout era. Games still could end in ties, but if either team scored in the five-minute overtime, it got a second point.)

It wasn’t even much better than toxic at home. Colorado’s 4-3 loss to Minnesota Thursday left the Avalanche with a 13-26-2 record for 28 points at home. The previous low in a full, non-lockout season was in 2010-11, when Colorado was 16-21-4, for 36 points.

At least the Thrashers had a pretty good excuse for that rotten record. They were an expansion franchise.

The next season, two more expansion teams joined the league, and both — the Columbus Blue Jackets (71) and Minnesota Wild (68) — posted significantly more points than the Avalanche did this season.

In the years since the Thrashers opened for business and had that 39-point season, the 2000-01 New York Islanders had 52 points (21-51-7-3) and the 2013-14 Buffalo Sabres also had 52 points, going 21-51-10. It is tricky because the addition of shootouts following scoreless overtimes to eliminate ties in 2005-06 meant more three-point games. Yet any way you punch it on the calculator, this Avalanche lowered the bar.

The issue now is whether general manager Joe Sakic, in his fourth season in charge after being so instrumental in the franchise’s glory years on the ice, will be allowed to see through his “plan” for another season. That defensible plan was identifying and tying up his “core” to long-term contracts and filling in around them, and to get younger and faster as veteran contracts come off the books. The worst part of all about the the Avalanche’s awful record is that it hasn’t been done on the cheap; Colorado has pulled it off while scraping the $73-million salary cap ceiling.

A look at this season, and where it fits in against the backdrop of Denver hockey and sports history, both home and away:

A Late Lineup Change

Nam Y. Huh, The Associated Press

Avalanche coach Jared Bednar reacts after Blackhawks left wing Richard Panik scored in the third period on March 19 in Chicago.

On Aug. 11, less than a month before training camp, coach Patrick Roy shocked the organization — and everyone else — with a resignation statement issued by a Quebec City public relations agency, noting that despite his vice president title and his long-time relationship with Sakic, his influence on player personnel decisions had waned.

Within two weeks, Sakic’s search for a successor settled on Jared Bednar, who had just coached the American Hockey League Lake Erie Monsters to the Calder Cup.

“I know from talking to a lot of different people that he’s a very demanding coach, but fair to the players,” Sakic said. “The players respect that. They play for him. The way he likes his players to play the game, I think it’s just going to be a real good fit for our group.”

Said Bednar: “Having played a number of years in the minors, when I started coaching my ultimate goal was obviously to get to the NHL and coach at the highest level and earn a chance to compete for the Stanley Cup. That was my goal going into it, I worked real hard to try to achieve those goals, and this is another step in that direction. It hasn’t been an overnight thing. It’s taken some time, and all my stops along the way have helped prepare me for this.”

Misleading start

This is why they should be called “exhibitions”: The Avalanche went 6-0 in the preseason, allowing only six goals. With one game remaining, Sakic said: “I mean, it’s great to be 5-0 but whatever your preseason record is, everybody forgets about that the first game of the regular season.”

Then the Avalanche posted two comeback wins to open the regular-season.

There were smiles all around when, on opening night, Joe Colborne — the former University of Denver forward signed as free agent in the offseason — had a hat trick in a 6-5 win over Dallas.

“You can’t script it any better than that,” Colborne said.

The Avalanche then beat the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3 on the road in overtime, with Gabe Landeskog scoring the tying goal late in regulation and then also the winning goal in O.T.

“Another character win coming back from a deficit,” defenseman Erik Johnson said. “We just have to keep the train rolling.”

Ten goals in two games. Two wins.

The script soon took a dark turn. Colborne scored one goal after opening night and was a healthy scratch in six of the final seven games.

And the train soon came off the tracks.

Rocky … Really Rocky … Hockey

1978-79 Colorado Rockies, NHL

Record: 15-53-12, 42 points

In its second chance in the NHL, Denver inherited the Quebec Nordiques — a young, talented team on the verge of Stanley Cup contention.

In its first chance in the NHL, Denver inherited the Kansas City Scouts — a two-season-old expansion franchise that had been undercapitalized and ineptly run before Jack Vickers bought it and moved it to Colorado.

For the next six seasons, the Rockies — although blessed with a handful of terrific players, most notably defenseman Barry Beck and Hall of Fame winger Lanny McDonald — were the standard for bad hockey. They remain notorious in the hockey world because “Coach’s Corner” television icon Don Cherry coached them for one tumultous season (1979-80), at one point bemoaning: “Our goaltending was (terrible). . . We’re not going to go anywhere until we get a goalie. I’ve tried everyone except the guy who works in the confectionary store.”

The most games the Rockies ever won in a season in Denver was 22, but there’s a catch there too: In that era, if the teams were tied at the end of regulation, that was it. Each team got a tie and one point in the standings. It was in advance of three-point games decided in overtime or a shootout, and the season was 80 games, not the current 82. So comparisons require projection, and the Rockies’ worst record, that 15-win season in 1978-79, roughly is equivalent to 49 points in the NHL of 2016-17.

The Avalanche finished with 48 points.

It was hard to be worse than the worst of Rocky Hockey, but the Avalanche pulled it off.

The Turning Point

In late November, after beating Minnesota and Columbus on the road to get back to 9-9-0, the Avs returned to Denver, hoping to take advantage of a five-game homestand to get into contention for the Central Division lead.

Instead of using the five-game homestand to build momentum, the Avs went 0-4-1.

A shootout loss to the Canucks in the third game was the Avalanche’s only point of the homestand, and it ended with an ugly 3-0 loss to Dallas, Colorado’s fifth shutout defeat in 23 games.

“Losing five straight is a horrible feeling,” said Nathan MacKinnon, who at that point had only five goals. “It’s just playing horrible hockey and it starts with us, the key guys.” He named himself, Matt Duchene, Erik Johnson, Tyson Barrie and Mikko Rantanen, then added: “All of us need to be better. We haven’t been good this homestand. We’ve been pretty bad.”

Wait, there was more: In the third period against Dallas, Johnson blocked a Tyler Seguin shot and limped through his shift, but the post-game diagnosis was that he suffered a broken fibula.

Some revisionist history later tried to stamp that as the moment the season started going downhill. The truth was the homestand already was a disaster when Johnson — who averaged 22 minutes of ice time and clearly was the Avalanche’s best defenseman — was hurt. What seems to have been overlooked was that Gabe Landeskog missed the entire homestand with a lower body injury.

But Johnson would be out 12 weeks, and there was no question that his absence lessened the chances of an Avalanche rebound, in part because it put the Avalanche in the position of asking way too much of veteran Francois Beauchemin at this stage of his career, and of the undersized, offensive-minded Barrie.

Rocky … Really Rocky … Baseball

2012 Colorado Rockies, MLB

Record: 64-98.

Colorado’s team ERA was a dreadful 5.22.

Invoke the mercy rule

Graham Hughes, The Canadian Press via AP

Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar looks down from behind the bench during the second period in Montreal on Dec. 10.

After that pivotal homestand, the Avs went on the road, lost at Nashville and surprisingly beat Boston before arriving in Montreal. There, they suffered the most embarrassing loss of the season, falling 10-1 to the Canadiens. The Avs were down 5-0 only 8:41 in the game. And it was on Hockey Night in Canada. Other than that … no problem.

“If you have one or two players who don’t show up, then that’s on them,” Bednar said. “When you don’t have the whole team show up, then that’s on me.”

The Avalanche actually came back and beat Toronto 3-1 the next night, with Semyon Varlamov making 51 saves, but by then it seemed that the horrible night in Montreal was going to be one of the defining games of the season.

Bad Broncos

1963 and ’64 Denver Broncos

Records (both years): 2-11-1

In the fledgling American Football League, neither quarterback, Mickey Slaughter and Jacky Lee, could lead the Broncos out of the doldrums. At least they’d gotten rid of those horrible vertically striped socks and Copper Bowl uniforms from the 1960 inaugural season.

Even since Roy’s 2003 retirement as a player, goaltenders occasionally have helped carry the Avalanche to overachievement, as with Jose Theodore in the final part of 2007-08, Craig Anderson in 2009-10 and Varlamov in 2013-14.

But this season, Varlamov’s mercurial performance when he was able to play and his continuing off-and-on problems with groin muscle issues ruled out him being able to spark a turnaround.

Shortly after that terrific game at Toronto, he was out three weeks before returning to the lineup against Anaheim in mid-January.

“Hopefully I can play the rest of the season without any small injuries again,” he said. “I want to play the second half of the season strong without any issues with my health.”

That was wishful thinking.

Starting with that Anaheim game, he came back and played three home losses in a row in mid-January, allowing 11 goals on 89 shots against the Ducks, Nashville and Chicago.

Then he was back out of the lineup because of the recurring groin muscle issues and underwent season-ending hip surgery on Jan. 26. He also underwent surgery on the other hip two weeks later.

Varlamov finished with a 6-17-0 record, a 3.38 goals-against average and a .898 save percentage. Calvin Pickard, Jeremy Smith and Spencer Martin often were been hung out to dry and haven’t been as bad as their horrible numbers, but they didn’t answer the NHL goaltenders’ challenge to save their teams on a lot of nights either.

Rotten Rapids

Lowest of the low

The Avalanche had losing streaks of five, five, nine, five, four and seven games. We’ll spare you most of the details.

In the second period of a 6-1 loss at Winnipeg on March 4, Blake Comeau had a rare short-handed breakway against the Jets and rather than shoot, he pivoted and tried to drop a pass to MacKinnon. But the Jets’ Patrick Laine got a stick on the pass, breaking up the play.

It really didn’t matter, and it was on the road, but that was the Avalanche’s season in one video clip.

“That one play probably sums up a littlest bit about what’s going on,” Bednar said. “We’re on a breakaway. It seems like we’re always looking for a better play. It can’t be simple. And it has to be simple.”

Horrible Hoops

1997-98 Denver Nuggets

Record: 11-71.

Johnny Newman and LaPhonso Ellis had decent seasons — but nobody else did. The Nuggets got off to 0-12 and 2-38 starts and closed with a relative rush to avoid breaking the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers’ record for fewest wins (nine).

Coach Bill Hanzlik was more pitied than criticized.

By the numbers

Seth McConnell, The Denver Post

Matt Duchene (9) chips pucks to teammates during warmups before their game against the Winnipeg Jets at the Pepsi Center on Feb. 4.

The Avalanche ranked 30th in the NHL — that’s last — in goals per game (2.0), goals against (3.4), and power play (12.6 percent); and 29th in penalty killing (76.6 percent).

At minus-34, Tyson Barrie and Matt Duchene had the worst plus-minuses in the league.

Duchene and Mikko Rantanen led the Avalanche in goals, with 20, and it took him returning from a two-game absence with a lower body injury to get two goals in the final two games for Colorado to avoid not having a single 20-goal scorer.

Among the 44 NHL goalies with enough appearances to be listed (which doesn’t include Varlamov), Pickard’s goals-against average (2.98) was 40th and his save percentage (.904) was 39th.

Box office

Actually, the news here isn’t as “bad” as you’d think.

First, the context: Buoyed by an instant championship team, the Avalanche announced 487 consecutive sellouts at McNichols Sports Arena and the Pepsi Center from early in the first season (1995-96) until Oct. 16, 2006, when the announced attendance for a game against the Blackhawks was 17,681, or 326 short of a sellout. In the last full season of 18,007-seat sellouts, 2005-06, arena sizes meant the Avalanche still was “only” 11th in the league, so that’s the benchmark.

The days of automatic sellouts were gone long before this horrible season.

But consider this: While the Avalanche finished 25th in the league in home attendance, the official average — 14,835 — is 82.4 percent of capacity. The dip was about 13 percent since last season. The previous low averages for the Avalanche in the Pepsi Center are 13,947 in 2009-10; and 14,820 in 2010-11. So this was the third-worst season for the Avalanche at the box office. Yet the hockey team still outdrew its sister franchise, the Nuggets, who averaged 14,779 and finished 29th in the NBA, ahead only of the MInnesota Timberwolves.

Both teams, of course, benefit at the box office in a market with so many “transplant” fans, and in hockey that means the Pepsi Center at times this season more than ever seemed something approaching a 50-50 mix of Avalanche and visiting team fans. And the through-the-lower bowl distribution of the visiting fans made it clear they’d often purchased tickets through the secondary markets — even the team’s own.

High Points

The Avalanche beat the Blackhawks twice, both in overtime — 2-1 on MacKinnon’s goal at Chicago on Dec. 23 and 4-3 on Johnson’s goal on April 4.

They got a bit of revenge for that embarrassment at Montreal, beating the Canadiens 4-0 in Denver on Feb. 7, with Rantanen getting his first career hat trick and Pickard getting the 27-save shutout.

And they managed a split with the Detroit Red Wings in a home-and-home set, winning 3-1 in Denver and then falling 5-1 at Detroit in the Avs’ final appearance in Joe Louis Arena.qwe

The reboot started after the March 1 trading deadline, and Colorado signed 2016 first-round draft choice Tyson Jost and brought him in. He had his first NHL goal in the loss to Minnesota on April 6.

Rocky … Really Rocky … Hockey, Part II

On April 3, 1982, the Rockies closed out their 1981-82 home schedule with a 3-1 victory over the Calgary Flames at McNichols Sports Arena. They were 14-21-5 at home, a better record than the Avalanche’s record at the Pepsi Center this season.

Because the odds of the franchise staying in Denver were considered minuscule at that point, the game was played in a curtain-closing atmosphere, and goaltender Chico Resch came off the ice in tears after his introduction as the game’s No. 1 star. Announced attendance was 9,824.

“I’d like to thank the fans who came out, and the ones who thought about coming out, but didn’t,” said Resch. “We gave them a lot of reasons not to.”

As expected, the Rockies were sold and moved to New Jersey for the next season.

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